Changing How High Schools Serve Black and Latino Males: The Implementation and Impact of New York City's Expanded Success Initiative

• In Event: 58.080 - Expanding Educational Opportunities for Black and Latino Male Students: Lessons From Four Urban School Districts

Abstract

Objectives
While high school graduation rates for young men of color in New York City are increasing, their college-going rates have remained stagnant (Kemple, 2013). The Expanded Success Initiative (ESI) was designed to address disparities in college readiness by providing 40 high schools with financial resources to help them create or expand supports for Black and Latino male students. This paper will describe the implementation of ESI and its impact on students.

Perspective/Theoretical Framework
The theory of action driving ESI is that an integration of three school-based domains—academics, youth development, and school culture—will improve college readiness for young men of color. In terms of academics, ESI is based on research showing that rigorous high school coursework and opportunities to enroll in college-level courses improve college readiness for students (Scramm, 2008). Related to youth development, ESI encourages schools to implement programs that strengthen relationships and to incorporate positive approaches to student discipline that reduce the use of suspensions (Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Skiba, et al. 2002). The school culture domain emphasizes programs that explicitly promote college knowledge and access (Conley, 2007). Undergirding each of these domains is culturally relevant education (CRE), which draws on critical issues relevant to students’ lives and aims to address educators’ underlying biases (Aronson & Laughter, 2016; Rudd, 2014).

Data Sources/Methods
The research team conducted visits to 40 ESI schools and a set of 20 comparison schools during each year of the initiative. Through interviews and focus groups, we collected data on ESI implementation as well the availability and quality of services at schools similar to ESI schools. Transcribed interviews were uploaded to a computer-assisted data software program for analysis. To assess ESI’s impact, we used comparative interrupted time series to examine outcomes for students currently enrolled in ESI schools and compare them with those of previous cohorts of students in the same schools and students in a set of comparison schools. Data sources for the impact study include records from the NYC Department of Education (related to students’ attendance, credit accumulation, and grades), as well as survey data collected specifically for the ESI evaluation.

Results
Our findings will highlight important strategies born out of ESI’s implementation in schools including 1) the development of culturally relevant curriculum and instruction, 2) restorative approaches to discipline, 3) early support for postsecondary goals, 4) efforts to address teachers’ racial biases, and 5) deeper relationships between adults and students. The results from our impact study will show ESI’s impact on students’ attendance, suspensions, graduation and college enrollment rates as well as impacts on other outcomes, such as academic self-perception, sense of belonging in school, and future planning.

Significance
This study addresses a critical need for research about strategies that will improve post-secondary trajectories for Black and Latino males and provides empirical data that will inform policy and practice in many urban school districts across the country.

Author

• Adriana Villavicencio, New York University